It was a great birthday!

Thank you to those who remembered my birthday and helped me celebrate this year. I got to start celebrating on Thursday when 6 girlfriends took me out for brunch. It's a crazy busy month so thank you to those who were able to come and I am sorry we missed those of you who were home with kids or at work--and thank you for my boots!

I started my actual birthday in the wee hours of the morning talking to Koryn for over two hours on the phone (when I should have been cleaning my house). Then I woke up in the morning to the phone ringing and was surprised to her from Koryn again! We usually play phone tag for a few days before we connect. She never checks her email so I had to tell her to go read my blog about her birthday and she needed the blog address again! Since our birthdays are two days apart we can celebrate both on the 14th and call it good! I spent most of the day cleaning and preparing for open house. Good thing church isn't until 1:00 because I still have a lot to do AND keep it all clean until we leave--wish me luck!

Mike took me out to dinner tonight and gave me a present. I don't know about you but we usually have something we've been thinking about and we'd like to buy so we just get it and say it's our present for whatever occasion is coming up. Well, this year Mike really surprised me!!! He got me an ipod!!! Now Mike is usually very frugal but every now and then he just decides to do something extra special. I am very excited to be able to use it on walks and at the gym and....where do you use your ipod? It's the kind that I can watch movies on and can have 20,000 songs or something crazy like that. I'm not THAT much into music but I am thankful to Mike, I love him very much and I am thankful to be happy and healthy for another birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KORYN

While living in Nebraska I had the priveledge of getting to know the Knudsen Family, especially the amazingly talented and beautiful "Miss Koryn" as she was known to all the neighborhood kids. Koryn and I became the best of friends (so did our kids) and very few days went by that we didn't get together, watch each others kids, take turns cooking since our husbands were gone so much or close Target on a Saturday night. We laughed till we hurt and cried and it was okay. We supported each other through 9 months of Weight Watchers and even went to 7:00 am meetings on Saturday mornings (I am NOT a morning person). She's the closest friend I've ever had. She and her husband, Jeremy, who also became great friends with Mike, moved to Omaha about a year after we did. We had the same realtor, Renae Cohn, who called me just minutes after helping the Knudsen's find a home- that just happened to be the next block over from ours- to tell me that she just sold a house to my new best friend. Oh, if she only knew now how right she had been! Well, a year after we left Omaha for a new job, the Knudsen Family was transferred by Jeremy's job. The city of Corpus Christi, Texas is blessed to have them as residents for now. In July I was able to meet up with Koryn in Ogden, Utah where she was visiting her family for the summer. We had a great visit and a fun day shopping at Gateway Mall in Salt Lake. We tried to go to the Salt Lake temple but it was closed for cleaning. Thank you, Koryn, for all the memories. Here's hoping we find a way to visit again someday! : )"Miss Mercy" & "Miss Koryn"We have very similar taste in lots of things, we chose the same shirts at BUCKLE, the same signs at DESERET BOOK and the same headbands at J CREW.

Yes, we will move...eventually!

For those of you who haven't yet heard - yes, our house is for sale and we have plans to move to the country south of Atlanta, Georgia--where it does not snow. The cost of homes is significantly less than where we are in Illinois and we can cut our property tax bill by about 75% -- and not have to shovel snow!!! We both grew up in the country outside Sacramento, CA, but it has taken me 12+ years to realize I would like to have that life for my own children. I just don't want to live in the sticks--or anywhere it snows-- so we are going someplace where that is possible. Mike has a brother, Peter, who lives in the Atlanta area with his wife, Lisa, and we really enjoyed the area when we were there for their wedding in June. The housing market is VERY slow right now - pretty much all over the country but especially in Kendall County, Illinois--where it does snow. Our realtor is having an open house here on Sunday. Maybe that will bring some buyers through - as yet we have only had 1 showing in 6 weeks. We would really like to build our own home on 5-10 acres of wooded, lush, green land - which we can buy for $50-60k (for the land) in Pike County, Georgia, south of the Atlanta airport by 30-40 miles. The home in the photo above has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and is on the market for $215,000 in Fayetteville, GA. Our home is listed for $419,900. We have enjoyed our time here in Oswego and have made some truly awesome friends but we need to do what is best for our family (and my sanity). We will keep you posted as to any progress in this new adventure.

A sample of land for sale in Pike County, GA

June trip to Georgia

We drove down to Georgia in June for Mike's brother Pete's wedding at the Atlanta LDS Temple. Mike's mom rented a house for us to all stay together in Stone Mountain. Here are some photos from that week. I didn't attend their reception in California the following weekend but Mike did so I included some of those photos anyway. Mason and Addie fell asleep on the way home from the aquarium in Atlanta.

L-R: Lisa's brother Jonathan, Pete, Lisa's Dad Larry, Mike and his other brothers John, James, Ray & Mike's dad Steve

Mike's brother Pete with his new bride, Lisa at their reception in California.

Mitchell and his cousin Addie. Mitchell and Addie became buddies. Here he is giving her a piggy back ride as we left the aquarium. Uncle Pete w/ all the cousins! I need to get better photos of him with Lisa. They are coming to visit for Thanksgiving so stay tuned! I couldn't resist posting this photo of Maguire asleep in the backpack! The cousins: Mason, Matthew, Addie, Taylor, Mitchell I carried Maggie up the mountain in the backpack but James was nice enough to carry her on the way down. James, John w/ Addie, Mason, Gaylynn, Mike w/ Maguire at the top of Stone Mountain. It was really beautiful! From there we could see all of Atlanta - which really means we saw the tops of lots of trees!

FINALLY!!!

So Mike is home sick today - of course moms never get a sick day!!! So I have his computer and all of our family photos at my fingertips. Yesterday my friend Jill told me she is going to take my blog off of her list if I don't post something new so this is for you, Jill! When I took the photo above way back on June 5th I thought it would make a great blog entry. My little precious only daughter dumped an brand new HUGE box of Honey Nut Cheerios over the back of her head and then sat down to enjoy her new found feast. I was at the sink washing Maguire's hands after breakfast.

The twins are now 17 months old and very cute but into EVERYTHING so nothing is safe, no matter where you put it - they can even climb up on the kitchen table and dance for us. The photo of both twins is at the zoo the first week of June.

What has been the "cutest" mess your kids have given you the opportunity to clean up?